I love Noodler's Nightshade. This ink has such a unique character - I've yet to find another ink that exactly matches it. It is a deep maroon color, but in certain lighting it can give off a dark greyish-purple look. For a dark and fairly saturated ink, it gives quite a bit of shading with my Metro's medium nib.

Aside from the amazing color, Nightshade is a wonderfully well-behaved ink. I was able to get some feathering on a cheap post-it note, but aside from that there are no negative effects. Even the ink splatter had no bleedthrough on my Rhodia pad, and even minimal ghosting.

The Nightshade bottle has a picture of the Solanaceae, or Nightshade flower. It is a very diverse species of purple flower that grows on every continent except Antarctica, and has some 2700 species.

This will continue to be one of my favorite inks; the more I use it, the more I love it. If you're a fan of the old version of Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses, this isn't TOO far off from that. You can pick up a bottle from Goulet or a similar vendor for $12.50.